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My Photos
May
31
Using Hotmail
Filed Under Ecommerce |
Out of curiosity, I tried to set up a hotmail account yesterday. They really go out of their way to make it difficult for you to sign up for a free account. Firstly, they told me that “Microsoft® .NET Passport no longer supports the Web browser version you are using. Please upgrade to a current Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 or later, or Netscape Navigator version 4.08 or later.” (I was using Mozilla 1.0RC1).
I switched to IE, and tried to register, only to be told that my surname wasn’t valid, and to please choose a different one! So, I made up some details, and got through the first part of registration.
After giving them your basic details they take you to a page where they expound at length on the benefits of a £19.99 account, and present a large button to “continue”. As it appears to be the only link on the page I clicked it, but was then expected to give them credit card details. I hit back, and then spent several minutes trying to discover how to get the free account. Eventually, I found a small link at the bottom of the “About MSN Hotmail Accounts”, immediately after dire warnings about how all your e-mail, addresses and folders might be deleted, saying, “Click here to sign up for a 2 MB account.”
[Oh, and having told them that I was in the UK, with a time-zone of Belfast, they then proceeded to tell me that my fees would include Irish tax ...]
As soon as you log in you get a usage bar showing that you’re already using 1% of your total space. I was initially puzzled, but then discovered this was the welcome message. I tried to view it, but every time I clicked on either the inbox button at the top of the page, or the inbox text link in the left hand column, nothing seemed to happen. I eventually had to switch back to Mozilla (with which you can apparently log in just fine - just not register!), and open the message there.
If I was more paranoid, I’d think that the free account is deliberately set-up to be harder to use. But then reality kicks in and I remember that this is Microsoft, and that all versions are probably really difficult.